Tunisia- FTDES : 61% of immigrants from African Sub-Saharan countries consider Tunisians racist

Extensive research conducted by the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES) revealed that nearly 61% of immigrants from African Sub-Saharan countries deem Tunisians to be racist, reported the TAP agency.

The study, conducted through a developed questionnaire to a random sample of 962 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, showed that 51.1% of respondents stated they have been subjected to discriminatory practices and hatred by Tunisians. Migrants were subjected to diverse racist practices like direct insults (89.6%), physical violence (33.9%), fraud (29.6%), violations (22.9%), and Blackmail (7.8%).

87.2% of these racist behaviours were committed by ordinary citizens while 56.8% of them were carried out by taxi drivers followed by shop owners with 3%.

The examination also showed migrants were exposed to institutional violence by multiple state structures, including security centres (9.6 %) and reception offices (6.6 %), as well as private institutions (5.5 %), managers (5 %) and employees (4.6 %).

The study also classified places where racist practices are taking place, public places placed first by 92.8 %, commercial spaces came second with 25%. Other places typically include entertainment places by a rate of 18%, hospitals with 6.5 %, universities with 5.5% and the headquarters of international organizations by a rate of 3.3%, placing last in the list are private clinics with 1%.

The FTDES said the study in question, entitled “From Sub-Saharan African countries to Tunisia: a quantitative study of the situation of migrants in Tunisia, general characteristics, leads and prospects“, was conducted during the period from June 2019 to the first half of September 2019, in the governorates of Grand Tunis, Sfax, Sousse and Medenine.